Q. In 20th century American music, there have been periods where there was a real resistance to composing lyrical music (tonal).   Your music has been lauded for its beauty, tonality and lyricism.  As you were finding your compositional voice, did you experience a lack of collegial and/or academic support because of your music's tonality? 

There was definitely a trend against beauty when I was studying music in college. At the time, I didn’t write all that much that might be considered “beautiful” - I’m not sure whether that was due to the prevailing atmosphere or whether I was still finding my own voice, probably a little of both. When I first started composing songs many years later (in 1991), I was fearful of showing them to anyone. I was worried because 1) perhaps people would not consider me a “real” composer, as my degree was in flute performance, not composition and 2) my songs were so intuitive and melodic, and not at all theoretical. I remember sending some scores to one of my former professors, and he said they were beautiful: however, this didn’t sound exactly like a compliment! It took me years to gain my own self-confidence regarding my own compositional voice.

Q.  What would you say are your compositional influences?

Everything I’ve ever heard, of course, has been an influence. I was born into a musical family and was surrounded by music from infancy. I’m sure this had a major effect.

I have a bad memory, so if I list composers that I love, I’ll no doubt leave some out. Here’s a brief list though... I love Monteverdi, Mahler, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Bach, Barber, Britten, Beethoven, Dvorak, Prokofiev, Schubert, Schumann, Puccini, Bizet, Verdi, Golijov, Ravel, Debussy and Rachmaninoff. Great music is always an inspiration. You can learn so much from listening. Likewise, bad music is also an inspiration. You can learn what not to do.

In practical terms, I think I learned the most from taking a course in graduate school (Yale School of Music) on how to compose music for film and theatre. The course was taught by Frank Lewin. We examined dramatic music, and learned how to respond to different moods in a film or play, and how to effectively write music to dramatize these moods. Today I use these skills when composing music for a poem or a libretto. I also learned how to use instruments creatively, as often, when I wrote film scores in my early days as a composer, the budgets were quite limited. I had to learn to make the most out of each instrument. I also learned how to compose quickly. In film, music is often the last component, and there were times when I had just 10 days to score a little film, and to produce the recording.

Q. Being a flautist and pianist, how did you learn to write for instruments outside of what you play, including learning how to write for the voice?

I often refer to orchestration books (and now I can do so online). I also would ask the instrumentalists for their advice. My daughter, who is a cellist, has been very helpful in playing through some of my cello parts and making suggestions.

As regards the voice, I learned a lot from my singer friend, soprano Lauren Wagner. She was very helpful about teaching me what made for a good vocal line as opposed to a good instrumental line. She always said “A happy singer is a good singer” and “What goes up must come down.” She also warned me not to expect great diction if I wrote anything about a high G (for a soprano). To this day, I am most willing to take suggestions from any musicians and to make changes if necessary. Often the notes mean less to me than the drama of the situation (which can be accomplished in more than one way).

It remains a mystery to me why I intuitively know how to write for the voice. I am no singer, as anyone who has ever heard me sing will agree!

Q. How do you choose which instruments to put together for your pieces?

There are various ways that my song cycles combinations have come about. I composed my Butterfly cycle for saxophone and voice because I not only thought the timbres would suit that particular poetry, but also because I wanted Lauren Wagner to work with saxophonist Gary Louie. Similarly, I wanted to write a piece for the great bass player Gary Karr, and the brilliant baritone Sanford Sylvan . Again I thought the timbres would blend well with the darkness of the poetry for "Holocaust 1944." Sometimes I’m just commissioned to write for a particular ensemble.

Melodies and harmonies drive my music moreso than timbres. The instrumental colors are important, but I have created multiple versions of the same cycle which I believe work very well; since the melodies and harmonies still remain constant.

Q. I have often heard you called a composer of art song, yet your music is frequently for chamber group plus voice, versus a voice only being accompanied by piano. Would you ever call yourself a composer of vocal chamber music? What do you consider the differences to be?

Sure, I would call myself a composer of vocal chamber music. I suppose that vocal chamber music implies a larger ensemble than just piano and voice. However, I consider my piano and voice songs to also be chamber music. My piano parts are typically quite difficult, and they are completely integral to the song — making both the piano and the voice equal partners.

Q. Do you use poems or write your own words for the texts of your songs? What is your process for choosing your material?

I have only written my own words for a few funny songs and one lullaby. I wouldn’t want to ruin my music with my own words! I’d rather use great poetry.

I have chosen my poets in a variety of ways. Sometimes I just have to set a poem because I feel it would make a beautiful song. Sometimes I choose a poem for a specific occasion — I’ve written several songs as birthday gifts. Sometimes a poet will choose me and sometimes I will be commissioned to set a particular poet. I have a particular interest in setting poems about the Holocaust. The poems are so powerful, and I believe that telling individual stories through song can help people to empathize with this terrible tragedy.

Whatever way the poem comes to me, I will not set poems that I really cannot love. I also like to maintain a degree of flexibility within a cycle. I often will start by composing the first song and then choose when I think will make a good contrast to that song, and so on.

I work with many living poets and have developed close friendships with many of them. These friendships are a source of great inspiration for me.

Q. In your opinion, what is more important- the words or the music in your vocal compositions?

In an ideal song, the words and music are of equal importance and cannot be separated. A song is like a strand of DNA — components twisted together to create something new. I am so grateful to my poets for their beautiful words and their permission to let me use their work for my work.

Q. Regarding "The Seed of Dream," a commission from the Music for Remembrance in Seattle, what was your inspiration for this music? How did you chose your subject and do your research?

I have a certain process for every song. My primary goal as a composer is to create music that will illuminate the meaning of a poem. And every musical idea is derived from the words and emotions of the poem. I always compose the vocal line first and I customize each melody so that the words are set with all the right stresses and the most important words in the phrase are highlighted. This allows the singer to effectively communicate my interpretation of the poem to the audience. My tonal centers shift frequently, and my rhythms vary along with the natural rhythms of the poem. I generally use harmonies to color the emotions of the text. I frequently use word painting, where I will create an “aural” portrait of the word itself. A poem is like a mini-film or a play to me, and I am like the director. This ability to present my interpretation of a poem through music is quite thrilling.

When I am done with the vocal line, I turn my attention to the accompaniment, and I try to add yet another layer of interpretation to the poem.

Specifically regarding "The Seed of Dream" — my only restraint was to find poems that provided a first-person account. Mina Miller, the founder of Music of Remembrance, had some suggestions regarding poets; as did Bret Werb, the musicologist of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. I located several out-of-print books and read many poems, but it was the work of Abraham Sutzkever that amazed me. I thought his poems were absolutely breathtaking. The language was so powerful and beautiful, and the fact that he was able to create poems of such beauty while hiding from the Nazis was also a source of inspiration.

The permissions to set the poetry were granted from The Jewish Museum of Philadelphia. They owned the copyrights for the translations found in the book "The Language of Destruction", edited by David Roskies. I was anxious to contact Sutzkever, and after about a year of trying to locate his address, found that I could contact him via his daughter in Israel. I thought he might be happy to know about the cycle. I sent a letter but did not hear back. I did contact the two translators - C.K. Williams and Leonard Wolf. C.K. Williams was very pleased, but I did not hear back from Leonard Wolf. I hope to send Williams, Wolf and Sutzkever the recording that Naxos will soon be releasing.

Q. What strikes me about this work is how well you communicate a wide range of emotions, often with multiple emotions being conveyed by the poet at once. How do you accomplish such a difficult task?

I try to be sensitive to the different moods of the poem and try to figure out how best to magnify the meaning of the poem. I pretend I am the person in the poem. The different layers of accompaniment also let me add layers of interpretation.

Q. While I was learning "The Seed of Dream," you were very collaborative and open, to the point of helping me write a grant that will ensure multiple performances of your work. Do you find that role of the living composer is not only one of being the person that writes the music, but also a collaborator to help the musicians understand it, perhaps even more so than in other periods of music?

I can’t really speak for other periods of music. But you are right in that there is more to being a composer than just writing music. When I was making my latest recording I not only composed the music for all the songs, but I notated it on paper, and then on the computer; I found the performers; I found the recording space; I hired the engineer; I played piano for some of the compositions; I coached the musicians; made sure the piano was tuned; I edited the recordings myself; mastered them with my recording engineer; wrote the program notes; had new publicity shots taken; and delivered everything to the record company. I do all of this because it enables me to share my vision of my music with a greater number of performers as well as the general public.

It is certainly in my best interest to be in touch with as many performers as I can so that I can share my own insights on my music. It’s virtually impossible for a composer to notate everything one would like to get in a performance. You have to hope that you will have sensitive and gifted artists who will be able to try to recreate the music as if they were the composer. The composer’s job is to get the music out of the head and onto the paper; and the performer’s job is to take the music off the page and get it back into the air.

I have been so fortunate in that I have worked with some very great artists. In the process I have learned much about my own music from their interpretations. A song is such an interesting collaboration — first it is a collaboration of sorts between the poet and the composer...although a song is really just the composer’s interpretation of a particular poem. The performers are the ones to bring the composition to life. It’s an overlay of artistic interpretations, which is what makes it so fascinating!

Mezzo-soprano and Artistic Director for the Chamber Music Society of Southwest Florida Janelle McCoy frequently performs opera, pops, orchestral and chamber works across the United States and in Europe. Her next appearance is with the Chamber Music Society of Southwest Florida on January 28th, where she will give a regional premiere of Lori Laitman’s “The Seed of Dream.”